Taiwan Business Quick Take

Staff writer, with agencies

Tue, Apr 30, 2013 - Page 14

COMMUNICATIONS

HTC One to go on sale

HTC Corp’s (宏達電) newest flagship smartphone will go on sale in Taiwan this week, telecommunications carriers said yesterday. Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) will sell both the black and silver versions of the HTC One with a 16-gigabyte (GB) storage capacity as soon as tomorrow, while Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大) and Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信) did not give a date for when they will begin to sell the black version of the 16GB model. Pricing for the 16GB HTC One will start from NT$19,900, while the 32GB and 64GB models will cost NT$21,900 and NT$24,900 respectively, HTC said. In contrast, the 16GB model of Apple Inc’s iPhone 5 starts from NT$21,900. Meanwhile, JPMorgan Securities upgraded its rating on HTC shares from “neutral” to “overweight” and raised its target price from NT$330 to NT$390. It was the brokerage’s second upgrade of HTC shares in two weeks.

COMMUNICATIONS

WeChat users won’t pay

Free mobile messaging service WeChat will lose a chunk of its users if rumors that it plans to start charging subscribers are true, a recent survey conducted by Avanti, a division of global market research firm TrendForce, showed. The survey found that more than 66 percent of WeChat users will stop using the service if it starts to charge, while nearly 25 percent said they believe the app will continue to be free. Tencent Holdings Ltd (騰訊), which launched WeChat in 2011, has denied the rumors.